Livingstone: The UK games industry needs one trade body

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The UK should have just a single trade body representing the games industry, development luminary Ian Livingstone has told Develop.

Speaking in a newly published interview, the Eidos life president said that the line between developers and publishers had gradually blurred over time, and ideally there would be a single trade organisation to recognise this change.

“There’s always been this division between UKIE and TIGA and yet there’s been a blur between publishers and developers lately,” said Livingstone.

“Publishers became developers and developers became publishers. So in my mind, we really do need one trade body and I think it’s important in the short term that UKIE offers as much to developers as it has done historically to publishers.”

TIGA and UKIE have previously taken part in talks to merge the two organisations, although these broke down in February last year.

Livingstone said at the time that whilst historically there had been a fundamental difference between the two trade bodies, the rising popularity of digital and online development meant those disparities were disappearing.

“Over time there is going to be a greater coming together as the differences between the two organisations disappear,” he said.